How to install Red Alert 1 on Windows XP Vista 7 8 10 Linux MAC. 32 / 64bit

[FunkyFr3sh]

(Sorry for my inglish not very well, i'm italian, i hope that you understand what i write)

 

I installed red alert1 with "ra1installer", but i can't play offline...why?

I want to play red alert 1 campagne.... (play online no problem)

 

Thanks a lot

 

Why exactly it doesn't work? Is there are any error message?

[Eugene86]

Hey guys,

 

I installed the RA Installer using the patch option as I have C&C First Decade installed via Origin.

 

I'm trying to launch RA with the default settings and the game just crashes right away and dumps a log file. I tried going through the log file but it's a bunch of gibberish.

 

Can someone please take a look and let me know why its erroring out?

 

Edit: I'm running Windows 10 64-bit Pro

[FunkyFr3sh]

Hey guys,

 

I installed the RA Installer using the patch option as I have C&C First Decade installed via Origin.

 

I'm trying to launch RA with the default settings and the game just crashes right away and dumps a log file. I tried going through the log file but it's a bunch of gibberish.

 

Can someone please take a look and let me know why its erroring out?

 

Edit: I'm running Windows 10 64-bit Pro

 

There were a few reports recently from origin users, not sure yet why it happens though. It seems like EA changed something...

 

Can you please go into your game folder and look for the file "ra95.exe":

Right click -> Properties -> Compatibility: Disable everything in there and try to start the game again

 

 

Actually I updated RA1Installer with a possible workaround a few hours ago, when did you download RA1Installer?

[Eugene86]

Hey guys,

 

I installed the RA Installer using the patch option as I have C&C First Decade installed via Origin.

 

I'm trying to launch RA with the default settings and the game just crashes right away and dumps a log file. I tried going through the log file but it's a bunch of gibberish.

 

Can someone please take a look and let me know why its erroring out?

 

Edit: I'm running Windows 10 64-bit Pro

 

There were a few reports recently from origin users, not sure yet why it happens though. It seems like EA changed something...

 

Can you please go into your game folder and look for the file "ra95.exe":

Right click -> Properties -> Compatibility: Disable everything in there and try to start the game again

 

 

Actually I updated RA1Installer with a possible workaround a few hours ago, when did you download RA1Installer?

 

I downloaded the installer a couple of hours back.

 

I tried your suggestion about disabling compatibility and it worked!

 

I'm going to re-download the installer one more time to make sure I have the latest version just in case.

 

Thanks for your help!

[Lightning Hunter]

Hey Funky, I am almost done with the Mega Compilation, and am now deciding the best method of packaging it. Currently, I have over 100 sc-xxx.mix files in my Red Alert folder containing each mission and/or campaign, but I feel this makes the compilation look too "crowded" when it has over a hundred files in the ZIP archive (that might turn a few people away). I think it would be best to put all those mix files within a single mix file to make things more neat.  I noticed that the "Deadly War" campaign is packaged in the file 'sc-missions.mix'.  Would it cause any conflicts or problems if I placed all the new missions in this mix file? This would update/overwrite the one that comes with the RA1Installer of course.

Also, can I update the sc-flamedancers.mix file?  If I am correct, there is a problem with one of the missions not carrying units over that I can fix with the mega compilation.

Finally, there are a few heavily modded campaigns I am considering including with this compilation, but they have new sound files.  I have confirmed that the sound files don't have to overwrite other files if I add new sound effects to rules.ini (in the [SoundEffects] category).  Would this cause any conflicts if I overwrite rules.ini that comes with the RA1Installer?  If so, then I will not include these campaigns or a rules.ini (so far there isn't one).

Edited April 16, 2017 by Lightning Hunter

[FunkyFr3sh]

yea you can use sc-missions, it was actually meant to be used for all missions inside of 1 file. But only if you don't override the numbers that were reserved for flame dancers though.

I got both flame dancers files updated already, just didn't push the update cause the executable doesn't support the NextMissionInCampaign thing.

Rules.ini shouldn't be changed

[Lightning Hunter]

4 hours ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

yea you can use sc-missions, it was actually meant to be used for all missions inside of 1 file. But only if you don't override the numbers that were reserved for flame dancers though.

I got both flame dancers files updated already, just didn't push the update cause the executable doesn't support the NextMissionInCampaign thing.

Rules.ini shouldn't be changed

Thinking about it some more, I might not use sc-missions.mix, just so people don't get a prompt asking them to overwrite files.  They might think there will be a compatibility issue doing this.  Maybe I will name the file sc-megac.mix or something.

Do you have the updated flame dancers set 1 files?  I don't know how the file priority works, but maybe if I include the updated stuff in "megac.mix" it will successfully take priority over sc-flamedancers.mix?  That way, there are no prompts to overwrite files.

I won't include a new rules.ini.  What I might attempt to do is revert some of the new sounds to official sounds, since having C&C1 sounds are not exactly mandatory.

[Nyerguds]

Priority is probably just alphabetical. And anything starting with "sc" works; doesn't have to be "sc-".

[blueskirt]

First of all, a big huge thank you for everyone that has been involved in the creation of the Red Alert Installer. I had to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 8 a couple years ago and had become unable to reinstall the game as a result. Yesterday I got into a mood to play Red Alert and discovering this program was like finding an oasis in the desert. Also, big thumbs up for the seemingly extended soundtrack, I don't recall my older version of Red Alert having the Counterstrike, Aftermath and Retaliation tracks.

I'm writing because I have a couple question for Nyerguds regarding the Lost Files:

I've noticed that you've patched the Lost Files sometimes last year. Back in the days, it was highly advised to postpone installing the Lost Files if you intended to play the Red Alert Allies and Soviets campaign as the Lost Files would overwrite some of the Red Alert campaign videos. Has this been fixed?

Also, I recall sending you an email or a forum message a long long while ago regarding some of the briefing videos. I believe at the time I had come across a lost file among the Lost Files, I think it was the video where Carville congratulate you for rescuing the hostages, or it could be the video where he tells you to destroy those submarine bases, or maybe it was one of Topolov's videos, I don't remember, it's been so long, but there was one video that wouldn't be shown anywhere in the game because no mission briefing or debriefing would link to that video. I sent you a message to report that issue and you said you'd keep that in mind next time you would patch the Lost Files but that was in 2011 or 2012 if I recall correctly. So I was wondering if you had fixed that little thing when you patched the Lost Files last year.

All in all, thanks for all the good work you guys have done on those games, I am looking forward to replaying the first game when I'll be done with Red Alert.

[FunkyFr3sh]

the lost files videos don't replace the original anymore, it was fixed longer time ago.

 

I think I remember there was a video with a typo and it didn't work, so it's probably fixed

[Nyerguds]

The v3 update of TLF wasn't any kind of "patching"; I reconverted all Playstation videos from the original files, because in the original I had accidentally enabled dithering when converting the to 256 colour, which didn't really look good, and, given what I know about the file formats now, probably doesn't compress well in VQA format, either.

The current RA doesn't need anything but the .mix file from the pack anyway; the old hacked exe with replaced video names is completely obsolete now these video names are added as additional extra entries in the original game's executable.

As for that video... I'll have to check that. If it's indeed still broken I'll update the pack right away.

[blueskirt]

6 hours ago, Nyerguds said:

As for that video... I'll have to check that. If it's indeed still broken I'll update the pack right away.

It took me a while but I managed to figure out where/how I contacted you back in 2011, it was through a private message on the CNCNZ.com forums. And the missing video I was talking about in 2011 was the briefing video where Carville warns you about the new Soviet subs, the one that starts with "Take a good long look, Major, because you will be attacking that harbor at dawn."

This video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kwCfuP8mdQ

When I played Red Alert in 2011, with RA95 that you had to install and run with shortcuts in Win98 compatibility mode (The pain!) and the older version of the Lost Files that overwrote existing videos, that briefing video was nowhere to be found, but I gave a quick look just now at the various briefing videos in the version I have now (installed with the RA Installer, and with the latest version of the Lost Files) and that briefing video plays at the beginning of Production Disruption.

So everything is fine after all. Thank you again for all the work you guys did to make this awesome game playable on modern machines. Looking forward to dive back into Red Alert this weekend.

[Nyerguds]

Ah! Right. A missing video would be fixed right now. I thought it was instead a typo in a mission file causing it not to find its file, and I didn't remember editing any missions to fix something like that

[blueskirt]

I'm a couple missions into the Allies campaign and I have noticed one strange thing, namely civilian buildings fail to load properly when I load a savegame.

For example, suppose I start the Soviet campaign, the first mission where you got to raze a civilian village, the very first time I fire up the mission, I can see all the civilian buildings on the battlefield, but if I save my game and load that savegame, or if I restart the mission from the Abort Mission menu, or if I go to the main menu and restart the campaign from scratch, suddenly the civilian buildings aren't visible anymore. I can see the oil barrels, the oil wells, the crop fields... but houses, churches and what are no longer visible on the battlefield.

For all intend and purpose, the buildings are still there, if I put my cursor over one of them, the cursor changes from the Move cursor to the Attack cursor, I can attack those invisible buildings, and they will explode when destroyed. I can also select those buildings, however the white square and the health bar does not appear. The buildings are also visible on the mini map, but graphically, they become completely invisible on the battlefield.

-Edit-

I somewhat found a fix for my issue: This issue only happens when I launch the game from ra95.exe, or RA95Launcher.exe. When I launch the game from ra95-spawn.exe or ra95-TLF.exe, the game works perfectly.

Edited May 20, 2017 by blueskirt
Added more informations to my issue

[blueskirt]

It appears like my fix to my issue reported in my last post was only a temporary fix, because although launching the game from ra95-spawn.exe or ra95-TLF.exe makes the civilian buildings visible at all time, both of these launchers do not support the Soviet campaign videos, meaning while I could play through the Allies campaign just fine, as soon I fire up the Soviet campaign, there is no briefing, victory or defeat videos at all beyond the first briefing video. I tried to reinstall the game in minimal installation and/or disable the No CD Required option in the config menu thinking it would force the game to check for the CDs and load the data from the CD but unfortunately the game cannot detect mounted CDs it seems (or CDs mounted from Win 8's CD mounting program at least).

So I am back to square one.

I can either play the game without any of the Soviet campaign videos through ra95-spawn.exe, or I can play the game with invisible civilian buildings through ra95.exe, and both options bother me greatly to be honest. Is there a way to fix any one of those issues?

[FunkyFr3sh]

28 minutes ago, blueskirt said:

It appears like my fix to my issue reported in my last post was only a temporary fix, because although launching the game from ra95-spawn.exe or ra95-TLF.exe makes the civilian buildings visible at all time, both of these launchers do not support the Soviet campaign videos, meaning while I could play through the Allies campaign just fine, as soon I fire up the Soviet campaign, there is no briefing, victory or defeat videos at all beyond the first briefing video. I tried to reinstall the game in minimal installation and/or disable the No CD Required option in the config menu thinking it would force the game to check for the CDs and load the data from the CD but unfortunately the game cannot detect mounted CDs it seems (or CDs mounted from Win 8's CD mounting program at least).

So I am back to square one.

I can either play the game without any of the Soviet campaign videos through ra95-spawn.exe, or I can play the game with invisible civilian buildings through ra95.exe, and both options bother me greatly to be honest. Is there a way to fix any one of those issues?

Hey, the problem was fixed a couple days ago. Could you please re download the installer and run it again? you should be able to choose "patch existing installation", this way you don't need to download all the big files again.

[blueskirt]

3 minutes ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

Hey, the problem was fixed a couple days ago. Could you please re download the installer and run it again? you should be able to choose "patch existing installation", this way you don't need to download all the big files again.

Awesome! Thanks, you're the best!

[ajcman]

Hello, I'm trying to run Red Alert (Origin) on Windows 10, at first It was fine and it was just the resolution that was having issues with. I downloaded your patch and nothing would work, completely removed everything and reinstalled to find no sound anymore, I have done what you said in the above post but now all i get is a black screen

[FunkyFr3sh]

20 minutes ago, ajcman said:

Hello, I'm trying to run Red Alert (Origin) on Windows 10, at first It was fine and it was just the resolution that was having issues with. I downloaded your patch and nothing would work, completely removed everything and reinstalled to find no sound anymore, I have done what you said in the above post but now all i get is a black screen

There were all kinda of problems with origin recently, not only with red alert 1. I guess this could be related.

Did you try to switch the renderer to OpenGL via the settings program? Did you try to enable Run in Window?

 

BTW, origin will probably tell you there is an update for the game after you installed the patch, make sure you don't let it update, otherwise it will revert all changes and you have a broken game. If it's already too late and you let origin update the game then just run the patcher again

[ajcman]

19 hours ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

There were all kinda of problems with origin recently, not only with red alert 1. I guess this could be related.

Did you try to switch the renderer to OpenGL via the settings program? Did you try to enable Run in Window?

 

BTW, origin will probably tell you there is an update for the game after you installed the patch, make sure you don't let it update, otherwise it will revert all changes and you have a broken game. If it's already too late and you let origin update the game then just run the patcher again

The Open Gl worked, however, the screen is still tiny, with a black background.

I opened the installer and the patch option was blanked out so i couldn't select it.

I will try different resolutions and see what can help my screen issues

[FunkyFr3sh]

21 minutes ago, ajcman said:

The Open Gl worked, however, the screen is still tiny, with a black background.

I opened the installer and the patch option was blanked out so i couldn't select it.

I will try different resolutions and see what can help my screen issues

Are you talking about the main menu? The menu is 640x400 surrounded by black, that's normal. The gameplay is fullscreen

[svfn]

hi, i just downloaded the installer and i have the CD ISO files in the same folder. when i select Full CD Installation, it cannot detect my ISO files:

[svfn]

On 4/21/2015 at 4:43 AM, FunkyFr3sh said:

Did a couple of updates:

The installer will now check if one of the .iso files was already downloaded and won't download it again, that helps if you lose your connection during the installation. Just start the installer again and select the same folder as last time.

It does now check if the freeware .rar or .iso files were found in the same folder as the installer, in that case it will pick the right settings (Full CD-Install) automatically (No more need to browse to the folder of the files either)

I tried to theme the installer which is a pain in the ass with the tool i'm using (inno setup), here is the result:

hi, i've named my ISO files as CD1_ALLIED_DISC.ISO in the same folder as installer, but it still does not detect them. i try to download via web but the download keeps reset (progress rest to 0%) if it loses connection.

[FunkyFr3sh]

1 hour ago, svfn said:

hi, i've named my ISO files as CD1_ALLIED_DISC.ISO in the same folder as installer, but it still does not detect them. i try to download via web but the download keeps reset (progress rest to 0%) if it loses connection.

It only works with the freeware .iso files at the moment:

CD1_ALLIED_DISC.ISO (size: 654348288)

CD2_SOVIET_DISC.ISO (size: 677396480)

 

If you have any custom .iso files then you got the following options:

1) Extract them with 7zip and point the installer to that folder, it looks for the file "main.mix" in the main dir and for "redalert.mix" inside of a "install\" dir.

2) Mount them with DAEMON Tools or any similar tool

3) Burn them to a CD

 

Another option is to download the freeware files manually:

 http://funkyfr3sh.cnc-comm.com/files/RedAlert1_AlliedDisc.rar 

http://funkyfr3sh.cnc-comm.com/files/RedAlert1_SovietDisc.rar 

 

 

EDIT:

Forget everything I just said, I updated the installer and it should work with any custom iso file now

https://downloads.cncnet.org/RA1installer.exe

 

 

 

[svfn]

1 hour ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

 

thanks, i was redownloading the ISOs and accidentally deleted my old ISOs so i cant test it now. this should work now!